This is the big night of the tour, the originally scheduled New York date, and all the legends and starfuckers are showing up tonight.

Boy, I'd love to get backstage. I bring my dear friend Johanna Lawrenson -- widow of my mentor,Abbie Hoffman-- who has generously let me use her downtown apartment for this tour. She's helping me navigate the sea of celebs at the Beacon:Lou Reed,Laurie Anderson, Richard Gere, Phoebe Snow, Tim Robbins. Arista president Clive Davis is here, and he's all over Verlaine, who is self-producing his next album to maintain creative control. Maybe Clive will see the wisdom of paying Tom lots of money while granting him an artist's authority to produce his own work.

And there's Aaron Kaye, the 300-pound Yippie pie man, in a huge tie-dyed tent of a T-shirt. He's now got an e-mail address (pieman@calyx.com), which means that, from now on, with a few strokes of the keyboard, I can order a pie in the face for any tyrant on earth. Aaron's nailedPat Robertsonand all kinds of folks with whipped-cream pies over the years. "Hey Aaron! Do you know what William Weld looks like? He just vetoed the medical-marijuana bill!"

Patti's cold has disappeared, and she's completely in control. She leads the entire theater in a shared dream-trance tonight, and gets a roaring standing ovation.

Dylan plays "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" for the first time on tour, and gets wild cheers with the closing line: "I'm goin' back to New York City. I do believe I've had enough."

After the show, I grab Johanna and we slide up to the side of the stage. Raymond comes out and escorts us backstage, upstairs to the sixth floor, where Patti holds court.

As we get off the elevator, Lenny Kaye is telling Richard Gere about meeting theDalai Lamawith Patti in Berlin last September. "What you're doing for Tibet is so important," he says.

Patti is on her way out of the theater, and stops when she sees Johanna. "I know you, don't I?" she says. They re-establish their shared role as Widows of Charleville. Then Patti comes up and kisses me! "Good night, Al." Sigh.

The artist Lisa Bowman walks up to Johanna. "I know you," she says. "We met in the '70s, when you were underground with Abbie."

"We did?"

"Yes, it was around '79, you and Abbie were looking at apartments in LA, and I showed one to you."

"You must have been a good friend," says Johanna. "You didn't turn us in."

The resistible rise of Andrew Fenlon By the time I get Andrew Fenlon on the phone — two days after the airing of his now-notoriously contentious American Idol audition — the world around us has already split into three factions: those who loathe him, those who love him, and those who need a reminder: who is Andrew Fenlon?

James: Surviving the trends after 30 years It's been almost two decades since Tim Booth of James stared blankly at the camera in the video for "Laid," garbed in a thin sheer dress with a metal handcuff around his left wrist, his now long-gone hair a poofy, curly mess.

Block Party celebrates, consumes the Arts District on Saturday The first time SPACE Gallery closed off a chunk of Congress Street, in 2005, they filled it with sod grass and turned it into an urban lawn. The second, a year later, inflated plastic structures dotted the Arts District. This Saturday — in theme, in spirit, and in execution — they do it again by throwing a good old fashioned Block Party.

Fall Music Preview: The road ahead As the local music scene continues to grow, it shouldn’t be surprising that this past summer was the most active we’ve ever seen in terms of album releases.

TED'S TURN | August 26, 2009 A little-known provision in the crime bill now being negotiated by a House-Senate conference committee would greatly expand the number of prison cells available to house violent criminals, and it wouldn't be cost a dime. But it may be doomed unless Senator Ted Kennedy is willing to spend some political capital.

TED KENNEDY'S REAL RECORD | August 26, 2009 When a 32-year incumbent seeks re-election, there is a long and well-documented record that can be examined. So it's disconcerting to note that admit all the miles of newsprint and videotape that have been expended covering the US Senate campaign, little has been said of what Ted Kennedy has or hasn't accomplished.

SEX, DRUGS, ROCK AND PEACE | July 22, 2009 It is a nation of alienated young people. We carry it around with us as a state of mind in the same way the Sioux Indians carried the Sioux nation around with them. It's a nation dedicated to cooperation versus competition, to the idea that people should have a better means of exchange than property and money.

DAMN YOU, BARACK OBAMA | September 26, 2007 Now that Obama's small contributors have effectively rewritten the history of political-campaign funding, even die-hard cynics are drinking the Kool-Aid.